The Moon Maidens

A Moon Maiden is a type of Dreamkin, a creature created from the stuff of the spirit world by the Bloated Moon, the Guardian of the Well of Dreams, to do her bidding. The Maidens are her bounty killers, the unrelenting bringers of her swift, merciless justice and they represent the peak of her creations. She only sends them on missions of the utmost importance, such as the removal of the Moon´s enemies, or to defend those she, by her own obscure agenda, considers to be worthy of protection. To anger the Moon enough to have her set a Maiden on your trail is an almost certain death sentence, To this day, no one has faced a Moon Maiden and lived to tell the tale.

Physically, a Maiden appears as a naked female of otherworldly beauty, her pale skin shining with an internal light, like that of a full moon. Her hands and feet are slender and delicate, tipped with long, nacre-coloured nails and her stride fluid, languid, like that of a cat. Her nakedness is half-covered in her knee-long silver hair, the strands moving sensually over her curvaceous body on their own accord, as if in water.

The picture of absolute, perfect beauty lasts until she raises her head and one can glimpse her face…

A Moon Maiden has no face in the real sense, the front of her head just a smooth, unbroken expanse from hairline to jaw. In the middle of that horrible non-face yawns a huge, circular, lamprey-like mouth studded with concentric rings of small, pointed teeth, that palpitates with peristaltic motion.

To look upon a Maiden´s face is to be enthralled by her power, standing there engulfed by her etheric glow right up until the point when she sensously steps up and tears out your throat.

Once released, a Maiden will not relent until she has eliminated her designated target, using her supernatural tracking ability to track him down, wherever he hides. She will use stealth and cunning to get close to her target, but always reveal herself at the last moment, letting her target relish his last moments.

Like a cat playing with a mouse, she will toy with and taunt her mark, before finally moving in for the kill. Maidens have been known to release their victims, only to re-capture them immidiately, almost as if they enjoy prolonging the terror and pain of their quarry.

The Maiden, while in possession of great strength and superhuman speed, relies heavily on her mind-lulling ability to render her victim (and any bystanders) helpless. She will never use any sort of weapon, prefering to confront her opponents with hands and feet, or her fearful bite. In combat, she moves with a snake-like, boneless grace, slithering away from any attack with lightning speed. There are tales of swords and bullets hitting a Maiden, only to bounce off without a mark.

Despite her power, the Maiden is a temporary construct - once her mission is accomplished, her existence will end, her body crumbling as the Aetheric power evaporates, leaving only a scatter of salt crystals and a wisp of vapor to mark her demise.

Additional Information

The Maidens are the Moon´s enforcers, sent to deal with people she considers a threat to her, the city or those she has chosen to protect, such as the women of the Amber House in the Maul. The Mother Superior of the Amber House is granted the power to call upon the Maidens in times of great need.

The last time this happened was twelve years ago, when Mowar Dusk, the rising crime lord of the Maul, tried to extract protection money from the Guild of Whores by letting his army of thugs beseige the Amber House. A single Moon Maiden showed up, and the resulting slaughter left most of Dusk´s gang bangers torn limb from limb in the gutters.

Dusk never made another attempt to take over the Guild, which shows even the King of the Maul can learn from his mistakes….

Roleplaying Notes

When I´ve playtested the Locastus setting, I´ve always kept the Moon Maidens hidden, nothing more than a legend and a myth. They are a terrific tool for keeping the PC´s from doing something really, really stupid, such as trying to break into the Moon´s lair. If you really want to scare the crap out of the PC´s, let them witness a Maiden dealing with someone.

Oh, and these critters are heavily inspired by Steven Erikson´s Forkrul Assail as well as the more traditional Succubi. Credit where credit is due….

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Naturally, there are a number of very powerful individuals out there. And also naturally, that would piss the Bloated Moon off, as they aren't under her control and therefore helping her contain the Well of Dreams. So as a result, she sends a Moon Maiden after then to teach them a lesson in complacency. However, being powerful individuals and such rot, they just BARELY manage to defeat the Moon Maiden sent after them.

So, perhaps the reason for their being no-one telling stories about killing them is not so much that they're completely unstoppable, but because a few people have managed to kill one, but were nearly killed by the damn thing and so have thus decided that telling stories about it and attracting more to them isn't really good for their health.

Yes, I like that idea. Looking back at this post, I realize that unstoppable killing machines aint really my thing - I dislike über-powerful beings in general.

So, killing a Moon Maiden would be a bit like kicking the shit outa a Hells Angels member - you might succeed, but you keep your trap shut about it afterwards so´s not to attract his buddies. Or something like that..:-)

Thanks!

/D

Link Backs

A possible answer to what happens to spells when a mage dies. If the spell is strong enough, say and enchantment or other permenant effect, part of the mages spirit may become lodged in the magic. It may be a way for items to gain some kind of intelligence, but a mage who has knowledge of this fact would be very hesitant about enchanting anyone or thing. He might have other plans for his afterlife than counting the change in your bag of holding.